EPICYCLE - You're Not Gonna Get It 1978-81 CD

CD only.

Highly recommended.

Makes a strong case for recognising the essential role Epicycle played during the nascent days of the Chicago punk/indie pop scene. The CD includes the quartet’s self-released three singles and LP, plus some demos. As critic Todd Killman points out in the extensive liner notes, these guys formed a record company to sell their music—and a few other local bands’ music—at a time when that sort of initiative was extremely rare. And they were teenagers when they did it. 

Epicycle pursued a few different styles during the three years chronicled here. “Standing On The Corner,” from 1978, has a raw punk sound, and the band was still taunting mainstream society with the defiant “Hardcore Punk” and “Radical Attitude” in 1981. “You’re Not Gonna Get It” and “Life Is A Breeze” mimic the revved-up arrangements of The Ramones.

In addition to combating racism and intolerance, Epicycle also satirized self-absorbed hipsters via the guitar-driven garage rock of “The Stare.” The melodic pop of “”High School Junkie” is ironic considering the song’s troubling lyrics, while the 1960s flavored “Biological Reaction” sounds a bit like Paisley Underground masters, The Three O’Clock.

Starting out as a rowdy teen punk band in the mould of The Damned or The Dead Boys, their sound quickly became more powerpop. The shadow of Cheap Trick loomed large throughout Chicagoland at the time.

The album opens with three of their strongest tunes – starting with the title track which has an Americanized Buzzcocks feel to it. “Hardcore Punk” is more Midwest powerpop than punk with its tight Kinks style harmonies. Probably the best thing they ever recorded finishes the trio of great songs. “Radical Attitude” suffers from sketchy production but is strong enough to overcome it and the lyric “I’m the n*gger, white honky, Jew all rapped in one” is radical indeed. In our politically correct 21st century world such words have even more shock value than they did in 1981.